City Region Tourism Chiefs hear plans for Southport recovery

POLITICAL and business leaders from Sefton and Southport have met Liverpool City Region Tourism Chiefs to talk about the impact of the summer's tragic events on the resort as well as plans for its future.

At the Waterfront Hotel in Southport, Sefton Council's Deputy Leader Cllr Paulette Lappin and Chief Executive Phil Porter met Tony Hall CBE, Lord Hall of Birkenhead, who chairs the new Local Visitor Economy Partnership for the Liverpool City Region. And the full Board, along with Liverpool City Region Mayor Steve Rotheram, visited Southport for its quarterly board meeting, which was preceded by a special breakfast meeting at which senior Sefton Council Officers and local business leaders outlined the impact of the summer's events.

After the meeting, also at the Waterfront Hotel, in Southport, board members were taken to see construction work at the Southport Marine Lake Events Centre.

The new multipurpose events centre will host:- entertainment shows, touring theatre acts, conferences, exhibitions and much more. Work is underway to prepare the site, which will be complimented by a spectacular water and light show on the Lake, the 1st of its kind in the UK.

The board heard how the tragic events of July had a significant impact on the local economy, but that seeing progress on major schemes such as MLEC will be vital in giving investors the confidence they need to see that Southport has a bright future ahead and in turn encourage more jobs, visitors and investment in the area.

Sefton Council Deputy Leader Cllr Paulette Lappin said:- "Southport is a wonderful, welcoming place for everyone and that has been the case for more than a century. It is a Town that has not only been a staycation staple for generations of families, but also welcomes an impressive amount of international visitors year after year. Sefton Council's Tourism team have played an incredible role in helping keep Southport at the forefront of the seaside resort sector amid a backdrop of challenges, not least following the truly awful and heartbreaking events of July this year. We know there is a lot of work ahead of us and we will continue to work with local businesses, the Liverpool City Region and Central Government to do all we can for Southport and its economy. It was especially pleasing for Lord Hall and members of the Local Visitor Economy Partnership to see what makes Southport's fantastic visitor proposition so unique in our Region, to visit the site of the future Marine Lake Events Centre, and to share with them the aspirations and ambitions of the Council and of the Town for Southport's future."

Liverpool City Region Mayor Steve Rotheram said:- "Holding the board meeting in Southport is a testament to our commitment to not just bounce back from the challenges we've faced, but to come back stronger. The tragic events that took place this summer have been incredibly tough on our communities, but Southport has always been a resilient and welcoming place and it will continue to be just that. Looking forward, the new Marine Lake Events Centre is an exciting opportunity for us to reinvigorate tourism and bring even more visitors to our shores. What's essential now is that we rally together; businesses, Councils, and local leaders; to ensure Southport not only recovers, but becomes a shining example of what our Region has to offer."

Lord Hall, Chair of the Liverpool City Region Local Visitor Economy Partnership, said:- "Southport is a classic example of the grand English seaside resort and a vital part of what our City Region has to offer to visitors from this country and further afield. It was incredibly valuable to sit down with leading figures in Southport's visitor economy sector, as well as political leaders and senior Officer from Sefton, to understand the impact of the tragic events that occurred in Southport earlier this year. We were all impressed by Southport's resilience and strength and excited by their plans for the future, as exemplified by the exciting new Marine Lake Events Centre. We also were impressed by the strength of feeling about the importance of restoring the beautiful pier; so central to the identity of the Town. It's a gem. As a partnership we are committed to doing all that we can to work with Sefton and Southport as they look to rebuild for the future."

The Southport business community was represented at the meeting by Tony Howard, Howard Estates, Owner of Cove Resort; Geoff Wareham, Mikhail Hotels Group; Andrew Brown, Stand Up For Southport; Alex Moretti, Fallen Planet Studios; Serena Silcock, Silcock Leisure; and Luke Randles from the Southport Business Improvement District.

Sefton Council's Assistant Director for Economic Growth and Housing Stuart Barnes and Tourism Service Manager Mark Catherall delivered a presentation to the LVEP Board.

Although yet to be officially named, the Local Visitor Economy Partnership (LVEP) has been put in place to significantly boost the Region's £5bn-a-year visitor economy, which currently employs around 51,000 people.

This partnership is delivered in collaboration with the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority and Liverpool City Council. Chaired by Tony Hall CBE, Lord Hall of Birkenhead, LVEP aims to position Liverpool City Region as 1 of Europe's major events capitals, maximising the economic benefits of its global appeal.

Southport's Arthouse to host solo exhibition by Suzanne Riley

A year after her successful group exhibition at the ArtHouse, showcasing the students attending her regular mixed media drawing and painting courses held at the Cricket Club in Mawdesley and the studio room, at Brookside, in Ormskirk, the spotlight will now be firmly focused on Suzanne Riley's own artistic repertoire for her celebratory solo show at the same gallery in Southport this autumn.

Having enjoyed working across various mediums throughout her career, the breadth of Suzanne's considerable talent will be well to the fore in an ambitious show that will encompass the extensiveness of her artistic skills.

Suzanne said:- "My background is in constructed textiles which focused primarily on weaving, knit, stitch, spinning, yarn design and felt making. My interest in drawing and painting was apparent as an infant with colour and texture always being a passion."

A graduate in Textile Design in the 1980s, Suzanne went on to work at 1 of the largest woolen mills in the North West; Joseph Hoyle and Sons; designing woven fabrics for premiere women's fashion labels, Jaeger, Planet and Aquascutum before completing a FE teaching diploma that ultimately steered her towards lecturing at West Lancashire College (formerly Skelmersdale and Ormskirk College).

Suzanne added:- "During my 34 years teaching career I've had many opportunities to explore other art and design related specialisms such as mixed media textiles, print and ceramics. Favourite combinations of textile techniques and processes include:- Batik, Applique, Free Motion Embroidery and Dissolvable fabric applications all combined in 1 creative outcome. My preferred combinations of media for painting include:- a watercolour/ink base with applications of gouache, chalk pastel, oil pastel and graphite."

Suzanne generates most of her artistic stimulation direct from Nature:- "Organic shapes, the natural landscape, the changing seasons, flowers, foliage, seedpods, seaweed and seashells are all inspirational sources. Their naturally occurring patterns, textures, surfaces and colour combinations never cease to amaze me and are regularly incorporated into my artwork."

In particular, Suzanne expresses an enthusiastic passion for all varieties of winter-flowering Hellebores:- "Their shapes, colours, textures and forms are stunning and provide an excellent starting point for developing design ideas or simply recording as an observational mixed media painting/drawing. Their seedpods, too, are such intricate shapes, quite charming!"

The exhibition will be grouped into examples of Textiles, Painting and Drawing.

Seldom restricting herself to a single medium, Suzanne's textiles are assembled following 4 processes:- "The foundation layer is Batik on 100% Habotai silk, which is then backed with felt. Applying liquid wax provides a barrier for the silk paints and creates a pattern once the wax is removed using a hot iron. Free machine embroidery is then stitched onto the Batik background to suggest the outline of the flowers and to offer further definition. Then dissolvable fabric work is applied in places on top as a third layer. To achieve this, machine stitch is applied to dissolvable fabric that is then immersed into boiling water. The boiling water dissolves the fabric and you are left with the embroidered lace like structures which are then tacked onto the machine stitched Batik base."

Working from life, Suzanne's paintings of floral arrangements using cut flowers also rely on combining a variety of media and intuitive techniques:- "The 2 vases of flowers are seasonal flowers painted using a watercolour base with the addition of watercolour pencil, graphite and chalk pastel on top. A broad range of mark making and surface pattern techniques are also used to achieve different effects before adding rock & table salts on damp ink-based watercolour to create the textured vases."

Suzanne's landscapes are similarly rich in their composition that she puts down to her textile background. Built up using gouache and oil pastel applied over a watercolour base, wax crayon and oil pastel are further applied onto some of the tree trunks in order to resist the paint before decorating with:- 'sgraffito' to enhance the final texture.

Certainly not 1 to be missed, Suzanne's solo exhibition will be on show at the ArtHouse, Eastbank Street, Southport, from:- 29 October to 16 November 2024.